Greetings in the precious name of Jesus Christ! We are in Alabama, and work has commenced! Praise the Lord for blessing us with good folks to fellowship with at Walker Springs Road Baptist Church in Jackson, Alabama. Pastor Webb has a heart for the lost, and a balanced perspective on evangelism that is rare to find. God knows what he is doing! This whole trip has been a series of miracles already, and time would fail to tell them all!
Yesterday Edward and I headed down to Mobile, and God's presence was with us throughout our labours. Arriving in Chickasaw we stopped at a corner that the Lord had burdened me for, but found no way to preach there. We also noted that there was almost no traffic, and I left perplexed, wondering if I had missed God's leading. We scouted the area for a tent location, and saw God do some marvelous things. We will share more about that as the story unfolds! Please keep praying for God to set the tent where HE wants it!
After spending quite some time scouting, we started down a street with gospels of John and Romans, our main tool we use in evangelism, and had good response to the gospel. God burdened me to leave just as we were getting started, and we did. Again I wondered if I had missed the Lord's leading, and we drove back by the first corner. There was a mentally handicapped man standing there on the opposite side of the street than where we had originally started to set up, and he wanted to walk out in the street to talk to me in the van! I told him to wait, and pulled around and parked on the corner. We spent some time in the word together, and he claimed to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then he walked off, leaving me standing on the corner. What a great battle the simplest things are when trying to obey God! I pulled the van into the tire shop that occupied that corner, and parked out by the road. Struggling with conflicting feelings, doubts, and fears, I got a handful of English and Spanish gospels, and we went over to the tire shop. God gave us favor with the owner enough that we got permission to park there and gave gospels to all present. I give these details that those that are interested in serving the Lord, and don't know how will realize that this servant of the Lord knoweth not how either, and perhaps some will be encouraged to step out in faith and TRY! Pray, study your Bible, ask God to fill you with his Spirit, and then do whatever you can do! We stood on the corner with scripture signs, and soon the Lord prompted me to go get the bullhorn. Brother Michael had bought a new bull horn, and the Lord prompted me to ask him if I could use his old one, and get some scripture signs from him before we left Missouri. Brother Michael lent me the new one, insisting that I take it. It has a record feature built in that allows you to play back messages, and Bro. Michael had just used it that day. His message turns out to be perfect for the occasion, and I have played it at least six or seven times on the streets of Chickasaw already! God moves in mysterious ways! God had put me in contact with a public official, and he "happened" to drive by twice! God is using it, whether to open or close doors, but it will be for his glory! As we preached, traffic picked up steadily, and I realized God had set us up near a local school, and they were about to let students out! We were there in the busiest time of the day! God is good! Oh the joy that filled my heart to see the big smile on a young African American boys face as he stuck his head out of a school bus and gave us a big thumbs up! The busses had to stop right beside us and wait for a hole in traffic to pull out in, and we preached the gospel right into their open windows! Praise the Lord! As we preached, God burdened me to use the little Spanish that I know, and I fought it, embarrassed by my impotence and ignorance (I only know one verse and a handful of words) in that language. Finally I yielded, and opened my mouth to speak, and my pitiful Spanish came pouring out with power and fluency that shocked me! Hallelujah! I trembled at the power of God, and his love for all nations! Oh to know more Spanish! I must work on this language! Suddenly God led to pack up. I was just as perplexed, thinking to stay all day. After a short battle of the will, I yielded, and we left. As we packed up I saw some men waiting on the work truck to get tires, and headed across the parking lot with more gospels. They were Latino, and had heard me preaching in Spanish and English, and were so affected by the gospel and power of God that they stood with tears in their eyes as I handed them the Word of God "En Espanol". Hallelujah! One of them repeated several times in broken English "You're doing a good thing", and all thanked me. We fumbled through broken conversation, looking at verses in the Spanish gospels, and pointing them to "Cielo" and warning of "Infierno". As we left they were thumbing through the gospels, and one was sitting on the curb reading intently, as he had been doing since I first gave it to him! Hallelujah!
We pulled out, and I thought we would go home, thinking that God was done for the day, but coming to a major intersection with a restaurant, God prompted me to stop for a burger. I was perplexed again, and concluded that God must want to do something special for my son. We went in and got burgers and I sat and rested in the Lord, and prayed, asking the Lord what was next. Just outside was the most perfectly constructed street witnessing intersection I think I have ever seen! A tangled mess of traffic lights, and public right of way, smashed together, busy, and surrounded by apartment complexes, a gas station, restaurants, and a shopping center. I tried to think of all the other things I could do. Surely God wouldn't want me to stand out there... It might be bad for local business. People might get upset... I really am a craven of a Christian, that struggles with fears and doubts and temptations! But as we left, God burdened my heart, and so there we went. We started on the side, but as we preached, I kept looking at a concrete divider with a light pole, about 20' by 10' triangle, right in the middle of it all. God said go, so we went, and preached as cars streamed by on all sides, and people walked down the road. One man at a local business seemed awful upset, and gesticulated wildly as he paced back and forth on the phone for a while, but nothing came of it. God was in it, and the door stayed open. When the police drove by we smiled at them and kept on preaching. Many folks listened while pumping gas, and a young lady from the apartments walked all the way out to give us bottled water. Several folks honked and waved, some frowned, but God moved, and his gospel was preached! Oh that God would turn the hearts of this nation! This little servant of the Lord is just a drop in the ocean of humanity, and a sinful one at that. It is only by the grace of God that I can stand and proclaim the truth of God's word, and I am humbled and privileged to have the opportunity to serve Christ by carrying his gospel to this lost and dying world! May God advance his gospel, sending forth laborers into his harvest and empowering them to preach the word with boldness, in Jesus name!